Smartphones and tablets set to top French consumers’ gift lists this holiday season
After enjoying bumper sales over the last few holiday seasons in France, tablet and smartphone will have even more reason to rejoice this year. According to a study just released by GfK French consumers are anticipated to spend €460 million on smartphones and €450 million on tablets this holiday season despite the tough economic environment. […]
4G off to a roaring start in France
1.5 million. That’s the number of mobile customers that have jumped to 4G in just a little over a month. After struggling for some time to respond to Free’s shakeup of the mobile market just under two years ago, France’s established telco giants are responding more adeptly as of late. While they all moved to […]
Payleven’s Square-like payments terminal arrives in France, available in Apple stores for 49€
Update: we have received an update about this article from Payleven, stating that, despite announcing in their press release that Payleven is launching in France, the product in fact will not be available in the Apple Store until at least next April. In addition, the product will not be sold on the Apple store for […]
RudeVC: Maybe Local matters after all
Two years ago I wrote a short blurb entitled, “Does Local Matter?” in which I provocatively questioned the future relevance of the Local network component in the overhyped buzzwords of Social / Local / Mobile. We even jumped on the bandwagon by launching a tax-optimizing holding vehicle called SoLoMoCo to focus on this fad. So […]
With Instagram Ads, analytics provider Nitrogram prepares to track Ad performance
The talk this week has been around Instagram Ads: what they are worth, user reactions, what comes next (hint: video). The banter feels a bit forced, given that the reaction has become more-or-less standard for any change made to a social network, especially one that revolves around making money; however, Instagram has made its decision […]
How the French PLF 2014 affects the startup ecosystem
The following is a guest post by Aurélie Daniel, Cofounder & CEO of Beyond Croissant & blogger at En 20 Lignes, who has a Master’s in Business Law from the Institut d’Etudes Politques de Paris. You can find her on Linkedin or follow her on Twitter @aureliedaniel. Earlier this month, the French Government announced its finance bill for 2014 (in French PLF 2014 […]
Why French Startups want to give Americans a VISA to work in Paris
One of the founding principles behind the Rude Baguette was that, if given enough information, you could convince Americans (namely, Silicon Valley developers & entrepreneurs) to move to Paris to work for a French startup – I mean, take or leave the perceived business atmosphere, but as an employee, you clearly have it better than your American […]
Japan to Europe: Game on ! (act 2)
Fasten your seatbelts, because the European mobile games market is about to become a lot more interesting. Not that the market has been dormant. I can’t think of a recent ride on the Paris metro or London tube without witnessing someone playing Candy Crush or Clash of Clans. And now Candy Crush maker King.com is […]
Leaving the Silicon Valley for the City of Light: Why Vayable set up shop in Paris
Silicon Valley founders have begun to make the trip from San Francisco to Paris more frequently in recent years – in no small part due to the likes of LeWeb and TheFamily – however, very few startups have uplifted their roots in San Francisco and moved to Paris the way founder Jamie Wong and her […]
“God has given you the Internet” & other great quotes from Oliver Samwer
Here at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Business today, the annual IdeaLab! Founders’ Conference has kicked off. The event, organized by WHU students, has brought out a plethora of founders & executives – a mix of WHU alumni – including, notably, the CEO of Deutsche Telekom & Axel Springer, as well as Rocket Internet […]